Arsonist's Lullabye ──── Leo Valdez

𝟓: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞

─────"𝐇𝐨𝐰'𝐝 𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐞?" Leo asked. "I mean Beckendorf."

Vincent trudged ahead. "Explosion. Beckendorf and Percy Jackson blew up a cruise ship full of monsters. Beckendorf didn't make it out."

There was that name again—Percy Jackson, Annabeth's missing boyfriend. That guy must've been into everything around here, Leo thought.

"So Beckendorf was pretty popular?" Leo asked. "I mean— before he blew up?"

"He was awesome," Vincent agreed. "It was hard on the whole camp when he died. Jake— he became head counselor in the middle of the war. He did his best, but he never wanted to be leader. He just likes building stuff. Then after the war, things started to go wrong. Cabin Nine's chariots blew up. Their automatons went haywire. Their inventions started to malfunction. It was like a curse, and eventually people started calling it that— the Curse of Cabin Nine. Then Jake had his accident—"

"Which had something to do with the problem he mentioned," Leo guessed.

"They're working on it," Vincent said without enthusiasm.

"How long have you been here, Vince?"

"Three years," He answered, barely glancing back at Leo. "Where have you been after...?"

After their argument and they ran their separate ways. It was all so stupid actually. Just a stupid fight. Not a day went by after that that Leo didn't regret splitting up and going their different ways.

He tried not to think about Vincent because it hurt, but now that the boy was here in front of him, it hurt even more. A dam of memories and emotions was flooding out of his mind and Leo didn't have time for it.

"Kept doing the same thing," Leo answered his question, "You know, got into foster homes, ran away a bunch of times. Got sent to this Wilderness School four months ago. Met Piper and Jason— well not Jason I guess. He says he has amnesia, you said the Mist, whatever."

"Oh yeah, your peeps." Vincent scowled.

Leo blinked. Was he...? Was he jealous of Piper and Jason being Leo's friends? Or was it something Leo was looking too much into?

"I looked for you." Vincent said after a moment. "As soon as I left, I tried to find you again—"

"Okay Ron Weasley," Leo cut in, to which Vincent just shook his head and tried to hide his smile.

He used to do that a lot back when it was just the two of them against the world. He would duck his head, try to hide his smile at Leo's poor attempts at jokes. Leo never really understood why. He had a pretty smile, his eyes would go all squinty and his nose would get scrunched up and some girls at their foster homes would check him out (Leo at 13 had glared at all the pre teens staring at his friend, insisting that the two of them were happy by themselves and they didn't need any girls to complicate things).

"I tried to look for you too." Leo admitted.

But the night had been too stormy. They were in the middle of some park and after their argument, Leo had fumed for an hour before realizing what had happened and tried to look for his friend. It was too dark and the rain was coming down in torrents.

Funny how two of the worst moments in his life had completely opposite elements— fire and the water in the rainstorm when he thought he lost his best friend forever.

Their relationship now felt like Frankenstein's monster. A patchwork of dead things stitched together again with unyielding potential.

If they had to stay here forever, Leo wouldn't mind that. Anywhere was good if it was with Vincent.